1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a container for storing and protecting clothing from odor and mildew, such as in the home, or when camping, boating or hunting, and more particularly, to a container for preventing odor and scent incident upon a hunter's clothing stored prior to hunting from contamination with a human scent and as well inhibit human scent on the clothing escaping from the container.
2. Description of the Related Art
Large mammals, such as deer, have well-developed olfactory senses and can sense human odor. Hunters are aware that the clothing they wear might emit odors that can be sensed by the animal they are hunting. As such, special care is taken to make sure that the clothing they wear is not contaminated.
As a first step, special care is taken to rid the clothing from odors normally associated with humans and other sources of odors not typically found in nature. This approach utilizes special scent-free detergents used to wash the clothing, as well as adding a desirable scent to emit a desirable (non-human) odor to cover up the remaining human and unnatural odors.
Notwithstanding, the clothes must still be transported in luggage or garment bags to the hunting venue. Unless protected, the washed and scent-prepared clothing may yet become contaminated with human odor. This may happen during the loading of the storage container. If the container is ineffective to form an airtight seal about the storage area, odors may enter and be absorbed by the clothing. Later, scents or odors may then escape from the container.
Storage bags, luggage, containers and the like have been provided to protect garments worn by hunters from absorbing undesirable odors.
By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,561,355, issued to Forbes et al., discloses a garment bag having an integrated vapor barrier and serially operated zippers separated by a folded zipper separator.
Luggage, storage containers and the like are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,793,881 to Gutierrez et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,263,591 to LaPorte; U.S. Pat. No. 6,135,253 to Weissman et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,891,391 to Fore; U.S. Pat. No. 5,585,107 to Vickers and U.S. Pat. Publication Nos. 2005/0155891 to Chen and 2003/0152501 to Byrd et al. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 5,776,378 to Knight is of interest in disclosing method and apparatus for applying scent to clothing.
While each of the above references are believed to have been suitable solutions for the problems desired to be then solved, it is to be appreciated that there is an ongoing need for improvements in containers, enclosures and the like used for controlling odor and scent incident upon a hunter's clothing stored prior to hunting.